White Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Filling

As most of you know, Tim just started a new job. Unfortunately for me, this new jobs involves some traveling. In early January he was gone for 12 days between Miami and LA. In order to keep myself busy, I did A LOT of baking. I started with a chocolate chip layer cake of which I have no pictures to share. Then I made 4 dozen m&m cookies and mailed them to Alee in Seattle. Then I made the glorious cake that I am about to share with you.

This cake was beyond decadent and a very pleasant surprise for Tim upon returning home from his trip. Admittedly, the decorating could use a little work; I am not the best cake icer in the world as this was perhaps the most difficult cake I have ever tried to ice. The raspberry jam kept gooing out the sides and turning the white chocolate icing into a pink color, which needless to say was not the desired effect. I tried to distract from this by compensating for it with fresh raspberries and white chocolate curls.

There is someone special to whom I owe tremendous thanks in her assistance with this recipe. I received her as a Christmas gift from Mom Ford and I love her like she is my child. Readers, meet Pearl:



One final note...I am on a diet. Good for me, yes, but the baking of cakes will have to stop until I reach my 8 pound goal. However, once this happens (if it happens) I plan on stepping up the blog and focusing mostly on delicious cupcake recipes. Stay tuned.... So, here's the yummiest cake I ever did make:

1. Gather all of the ingredients you will need for the cake. (flour, sugar, salt, eggs, butter, vanilla, white chocolate, half and half, baking powder, and salt)



2. Begin by separating the yolks from the whites of 4 eggs, but save both components. Allow the egg whites to sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes.


3. In a small mixing bowl combine 1 3/4 cups of flour, 2 tsp. baking powder, and 1/4 tsp. of salt. Whisk these ingredients together and then set the mixture aside.


4. Melt 3 ounces of the white chocolate baking bar (broken down into smaller chunks) with 1/4 cup of the half and half in a saucepan over very low heat, stirring constantly just until the chocolate begins to melt. Remove from heat and continue to stir until the chocolate is completely melted. Stir in 1/2 cup of half and half and allow mixture to cool.


5. With your version of Pearl, beat 1/3 cup of butter for about 30 seconds and then add 1 cup of sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla. Then add the 4 egg yolks one at a time.


6. Alternately add the flour mixture and the white chocolate mixture, beating just until combined.




7. In a separate mixing bowl beat the 4 egg whites with a hand mixer until stiff peaks begin to form. This will take a few minutes and look something like this when finished, although the picture can't really capture the peaks that you are looking for.


8. Very gently fold the egg whites into the batter.


9. Pour the cake batter into two 8 or 9 inch pans and bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

(nevermind the gorgeous insides of my oven...)

Meanwhile....

Prepare the icing...

1. Gather your ingredients: milk, white chocolate baking bar, vanilla, butter, salt, powdered sugar, and whipped cream.


2. Melt 4 1/2 ounces of the white chocolate (broken into chunks) over a double boiler. Then stir it until smooth and allow to cool to room temperature.


3. Sift 1 3/4 cup of powdered sugar into a mixing bowl.


4. Add 1/4 cup of milk, 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract, 6 tbsp. unsalted butter, and a pinch of salt. Beat until combined.



5. You could stop here and have delicious icing, but I like my icing a bit more fluffy, so i added about 3/4 cup of whipped cream. After mixing the icing to your liking refrigerate it for about 30 minutes.

Now to put it all together...

After the cakes have COMPLETELY cooled, place the bottom layer into your cake plate. Cover it with about 1/3 cup of seedless raspberry jam and a thin layer of the white chocolate icing. Place the top layer on top of the cake and frost the entire thing with the icing.

To decorate the cake, I used fresh raspberries around the bottom and curls of white chocolate all over the top. To make the curls, take a vegetable peeler to the remaining 1/2 ounce of white chocolate and let it fall where it may.



Alas, I present my White Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Filling:


***As a reminder, do not judge my cake by appearance alone, but rather by how good you can only imagine it tasted....Absolutely Delicious!

Snickerdoodle Cake

So, last Wednesday was my friend Kasey's 27th Birthday and this is her sort of belated birthday present. There are two things that I know about my friend Kasey: 1) she loves snickerdoodle cookies and 2) she doesn't really much care for cake. And there are two things I know about myself 1) I really like to bake cakes and 2) I don't much care for baking cookies. Besides, apparently her mom's snickerdoodles are so good, that I wouldn't even want to attempt to compete. So I baked this cake in her honor. I know she won't eat it, so Tim and I will eat it and tell her yummy it is! Some birthday present, huh?

Here is my best effort to bring over to my side of the dessert fence.....

One more note about this recipe. While it is true that the recipe calls for a box of pre-made cake mix, DO NOt follow the directions on the box. I like to think if this recipe as somewhere in between from-the-box and baked from scratch. Yes, I use the boxed cake mix as my base, but I add completely different ingredients that Betty Crocker's recipe calls for. She's so overrated anyway.

1. Gather all of the following ingredients: vegetable shortening a.k.a crisco (yum, but don't worry, you don't actually eat any crisco), flour, plain white cake mix, whole milk, real butter, eggs, vanilla extract, and cinnamon.



2. Make sure your oven rack is placed in the center of the over and preheat your oven to 350 degrees.


3. Use the Crisco to grease two 9-inch round cake pans, then dust them with flour. Be sure to shake out the excess flour from the pans.


4. In a mixing bowl, place the cake mix, 8 tablespoons of melted butter, 3 eggs, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, and 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon.



5. Blend with an electric mixer for about 1 minute, then scrape the sides of the bowl. Beat with mixer for another 2 minutes. The batter should be well combined and fluffy.



6. Divide the batter evenly between the 2 round cake pans that you greased and floured earlier. Smooth out the tops of the batter so that it will cook evenly. Then place the pans in the oven side by side and bake for about 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and springy to the touch.


7. When the cakes have finished cooking, remove them from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for about 10 minutes.



8. Run a knife around the edge of each pan to loosen the cakes, then invert each cake right-side up onto the wire rack to cool completely--about 30 minutes.



MEANWHILE...make the cinnamom buttercream frosting.

1. Gather the ingredients for the frosting: butter, confectioner's sugar, milk, vanilla extract, and cinnamon (which i left out of the picture by accident)...and this recipe is from scratch :)


2. Place 8 tablespoons of butter at room temperature into a mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until butter is fluffy.


3. Add 3 3/4 cups of confectioner's sugar, 3 tablespoons of milk, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Beat with the electric mixer on low for 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium and beat until the icing is light and fluffy. The amount of time is important because the longer you beat the icing, the more air that gets incorporated which makes the icing fluffier. But if you beat it for too long then the batter will be stiff.



Now you can frost the cake!!

1. Ice the top of one of the cakes.


2. Place the second cake right-side up on top of the other.


3. To ice the rest of the cake, start with the top and then move on to the sides, smoothing as you go along. The inside and outside will look like this:

I hope she likes it...
Happy Birthday Lady!!!